


Her Scent, His Panic and A Pissed Off Niffler

by bubb



Category: Trolls (2016)
Genre: F/M, Hogwarts AU, Human AU, They're 14 here, so they're characterized as younger versions of their canon personality, so think more immature and dorkier
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-08
Updated: 2019-08-08
Packaged: 2020-08-11 18:09:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,772
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20157859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bubb/pseuds/bubb
Summary: In which Branch gets a whiff of Amortentia in his potions class and it reads him for filth.





	Her Scent, His Panic and A Pissed Off Niffler

Poppy was already present when Branch entered the classroom. She was seated next to Suki, the latter playfully poking and prodding her shoulder, insistent that Poppy “Do the thing.”

She nodded with an easy-going giggle and shoving Suki away by the nose, grasped hold of her own ponytail. The turquoise hair tie was unwound and snapped around Poppy’s wrist as the bubble-gum mop tumbled and fell at her shoulders. 

Puzzled and admittedly intrigued by the display, Branch remained stood in the doorway as Poppy performed her trick. Hands slid around the back of her head and in an exaggerated but almost cinematic motion, she flipped her hair outwards.

And it grew. Mid length hair expanded as it was thrown back, brushing against the desk behind her and cascaded down the end of her chair. Suki wriggled in anticipation and pulled a handful of locks under her palm to admire as Poppy shot her a wide grin. 

Colours. Streaks of blues, purples, greens, yellows and oranges of various shades and tints leaked down the vivid pink curtain until the little rainbow headed Metamorphmagus was almost unrecognizable as the girl sitting there not a minute prior. But if you were to ever see a girl whose appearance drew every eye with her sheer oddity alone, everyone familiar with Poppy’s ways would know her in an instant. Branch certainly did.

Something small and stubby suddenly jabbed his side and Branch nearly snapped his back out in shock. He looked down to find a little face and a pair of wide, blinking baby blues. 

“Are you gonna sit the Hell down or are you just gonna stare at it?” Smidge asked bluntly, jutting a thumb at the desk behind Poppy and Suki.

Branch fixed his face into a scowl, now aware and irritated that his bottom lip had been hanging loose. He must have looked ridiculous. “I’m going to!” He snapped. “Christ, you don’t have to rush me. Mind your damn business.”

“You were just standing there and gawking like an idiot.” Smidge informed him, hand on her hip. “Figured _someone_ should snap you out of it.”

“I wasn’t gawking!” Branch insisted, only interrupted with a grunt as Smidge bid him farewell with a punch to the forearm. She said nothing more, turning and heading for her own seat in the front row. 

Rubbing the sore spot and grumbling about tiny girls and their unnecessary attitude, Branch approached his desk. He slammed himself down and began rooting around for his potions book.

The crinkling of parchment from inside his bag caught Poppy’s attention and she turned to face him. While the rainbow in her hair had died, it still hung long, loose and pink down her back. 

Branch had taken to blaming the hair at first. It was far too eye-popping for a Hogwarts classroom. Any normal, functioning human would be visually drawn to it, including Branch. So naturally, during every class, he had taken to staring. 

Oh, and don’t even get him started on the ever-so clear fragrance of strawberries that wafted wherever she went. Good God, did this girl have no essence of subtlety? 

The way she looked, the way she smelled, her voice, her gestures, her movement, her magic. Everything about her, whether intentionally or not, seemed to _demand_ his utmost attention and Branch was downright sick of it. She was a distraction to the learning, goddammit and he had a right mind to give her a lecture.

Well, maybe he wouldn’t do that. What would he even say?

_Your very existence is bothering me and I need you to stop it._

No. That might not translate well when put into words.

Plus saying just about _anything_ to Poppy had been difficult these days. And the reasoning as to why, as baffling as it was to him, came right then and there.

She flashed a pair of bright, gleaming eyes in his direction and her expression lit up. How she could look so eager to see such a surly face was anyone’s guess.

“Branch, my man!” Poppy beamed, propping an elbow on the back of her chair. “You actually showed up! How’s the hand?”

Branch said nothing, immediately ducking his head back into his bag to avoid direct eye contact. With an attempted air of casualty, he held out his right hand, clean and unblemished. “It’s fine.” He mumbled, carefully laying out his potion ingredients. 

Poppy didn’t seem satisfied with this alone. “Yeah?” She prompted. “So, whatcha do?”

“Um. The hospital wing. I went there and-....and it was-...th-...they did the, uh--...”

It seemed that not looking at her did not work in the slightest. He could still feel her eyes on him. Abnormally coloured and strikingly clear fuchsia eyes that were not seen but easily visualized. The memory alone was causing him significant problems in piecing a simple sentence together, his tongue constantly tripping over itself. “They did the ‘Episkey’ spell on it and-”

“Wait, what happened to his hand?” Suki questioned, (thankfully) cutting off Branch’s attempt at speech.

“Got bitten by a niffler.” Said Poppy, with a shake of her head. “Pretty nasty bite too.”

There was a tiny warning snicker that was briefly stifled before Suki erupted into raucous laughter.

Branch raised his head, brow furrowed. “It’s not funny.” He said sharply.

“A niffler!” Suki cried, throwing a hand over her stomach as she bucked back in her chair. “A cute, cuddly li’l bundle of fluffy and Branch pissed it off, I’m-” She inhaled shakily, wiping at her eyes. “Oh my God...”

A brief chuckle sounded before Poppy slapped a hand over her mouth.

Branch sent her a glare, his prior nervousness forgotten in favour of his usual aggravation. “I didn’t piss it off.”

“You did!” Poppy was quick to debunk. “You tried to fight it!”

“No, I didn’t!”

“You did!”

“I did _not!”_

_“You did!”_

“Wait, wait,” Suki waved a hand between the two whose gazes were locked in their debate. “So, what happened, anyway? I’m guessing this happened after Care of Magical Creatures?”

“You don’t have to know _everything_, Suki.” Branch groused, tucking a fist against his cheek. “Mind your business.”

He turned and settled his eyes on nothing in particular so found himself half-heartedly examining a rusty cauldron at the other end of the room.

There was a silence. Unusual, considering his company. Branch glanced back at the girls and he felt his eyebrows raise in surprise.

Poppy had not taken her eyes off him and was currently pinning him with that soft pout that he assumed she called a glare. She faced Suki. “So, yeah, what happened was-”

“Poppy-!”

She brushed him off with a sharp hush, not even looking as she pressed a forefinger to his lips. 

Branch was immediately silenced.

“So, y’know how you and Smidge needed to rush up to the common room to grab your potions book when Care of Magical Creatures was over?”

Suki nodded.

“Yeah, well, I was gonna come with but then I decided to hang back and my good ol’ buddy Branch was just putting his stuff away so I went up for a chit-chat,”

“Chit chat? Is that what you call it?” Branch chimed in dryly. “You snuck up behind me and snorted like a pig in my ear.”

Poppy smirked and briefly demonstrating by transforming her nose into a round pink snout. It wriggled teasingly, causing Suki to laugh and Branch to roll his eyes.

The snout disappeared with the twitch of her lip and she continued. “So, we’re walking and talking and Branch is just trying to put his books away but he ends up dropping his entire bag and-”

“I wouldn’t have dropped it if you hadn’t-!” His words came to a staggering halt as Branch suddenly realized the implication. His jaw snapped shut.

_Not happening, champ. Quit while you’re ahead._

Poppy cocked her head quizzically. “Nah, dude. Believe it or not, I didn’t do that. You dropped your stuff all by yourself.”

Yeah, Branch couldn’t really explain that Poppy’s company alone was enough to make him drop things without coming across as a little weird.

“Okay, sorry. Go on.” He mumbled passively before internally kicking himself for how meek that sounded. 

Luckily Poppy either didn’t notice or didn’t care as she happily carried on.

“Alrighty. So, he drops his stuff and there was this one niffler who was still loose after the lesson. So, he starts digging around in Branch’s bag until he finds some galleons and just fricken’ took off with them and Branch-”

“Oh my God, Branch _did_ try to fight a niffler!”

“I didn’t!”

“He did!” Poppy eagerly confirmed. “Well, like. He didn’t really fight it but he came pretty close. But no, he was actually bein’ really sweet about it, like trying to get the little guy to give the galleon up. He was doin’ his animal voice.”

“He has an animal voice?” Suki glanced at a reddened Branch.

“I don’t have an animal voice.” Branch shook his head at the curious Suki.

“He has an animal voice.” Poppy confirmed with a definite nod. “But yeah, the animal voice didn’t work out too well and Branch kinda lost his patience and lunged aaaaaaand,”

Poppy trailed off cautiously as Branch winced at the memory.

Suki looked between the two and nodded. The expressions gave her all the information she needed. “So, how bad was it?”

“Bad.” Said Branch and Poppy in unison. They both blinked. Poppy chuckled, Branch looked elsewhere. 

“But after the niffler ran off-”

“With _my_ galleons,”

“And Branch was slowly bleeding to death-”

“It wasn’t that bad!”

“I grabbed him by the robes before he went running after it and losing a finger or something. Then, I tried fixing him up as best I could so-”

“I still can’t believe you let him get away, I had it under-” Another complaint abruptly quieted by subtle contact. Branch’s head snapped down, eyes nearly popping out of his skull.

Pink, purple and lemon yellow nails decorated with glitter. Bracelets jangled, as plastic ring clad fingers brushed over his own. That small hand was an explosion of colour just like the rest of her. And it had seized his stumpy calloused one so casually. 

_Oh God, no. Not again. Suki’s sitting right there._

But surprisingly, Poppy did not repeat what he assumed she would, instead merely waving her wand in demonstration over his hand. “I wasn’t really sure what to do so I just kinda gave him a hanky and cleared the blood away with ‘Tergeo’ and he was just fine.” She shrugged, and with that, released him. For the briefest of seconds, Branch let his hand hover, almost lost, before he lowered it against the desk. He waited. 

Poppy clicked her tongue before turning to Suki. “Oh, yeah, I only did like half of my potions essay. What about you?”

Aaaaaand, that was it. The two girls steered the conversation towards homework oriented chatter and Branch couldn’t bring himself to say another thing. He was relieved she hadn’t brought it up, he really was. 

Although, he couldn’t overlook the disappointment that was swelling in the pit of his stomach.

Luckily, Branch didn’t have to ponder much longer as Professor Bibbly burst into the classroom with a hurried response concerning his lacking punctuality. His wand was held high over his shoulder and slowly meandering behind him, was a large, levitating cauldron. With a steady conduction, he settled the object on the nearest desk. “Now, can everyone gather around, please? I want you all to get a whiff,”

Within seconds, the class had stood and circled around the mystery pot, a couple of noses already twitching, curious to know of the scent. Once everyone had huddled near, Bibbly removed the lid.

The buzzing mumbles of conversations paused and the classroom filled with a combined inhalation of twenty-three students. Hushed _‘Woah’ _s and ‘_Wow’ _s resounded and almost like a hivemind, the class shuffled five steps closer to the heavenly smelling cauldron.

Bibbly chuckled. “Smell good, huh?”

A collection of dazed and distracted _‘Mmm’ _s. 

“Alright, now. I don’t believe we’ve covered this before but can anyone tell me the name of this particular potion?”

The class was either clueless or too enraptured with the scent to even think of a name. Bibbly sighed, only mildly exasperated before turning to one of his cleverest but quietest students. “Branch?”

The student in question, who had just snapped out of his stupor to stop Suki from dipping her nose into the potion, raised his head. “Um,” He blinked momentarily as he tried to recall. “Amortentia? I think?”

“Correct!” Bibbly smiled warmly with a tap of his wand. “And could you tell us its function?”

“A love potion.” He answered, at once. “It causes...” Branch hastily pulled the textbook definition to the forefront of his mind. “It causes the drinker to become infatuated with the giver of the potion. Due to its nature, Amortentia will have a different scent to everyone, depending on what attracts them.”

“Excellent, Branch. Now, an example?”

Branch nodded obediently and stepped forward. What he could smell, was an odd mixture of things that couldn’t really be pinpointed with a brief sniff. All a brief sniff could really do was blur his head was a hazy feeling of giddiness from memories he couldn’t quite grasp. But placing his hands on the desk and letting his nose hover above the steaming cauldron, he attempted to distinguish every individual scent. Branch breathed it in.

_Hogwarts Christmas Trees and dazzling silver ornaments hanging from the starry ceiling. Golden warmth of the great hall and a thick mug of sweet milky liquid, soothing his icy insides._

“Hot cocoa. I smell hot cocoa.”

_A little kitchen, overflowing cabinets painted a perky pale blue and dotted with rosebuds. An elderly woman with bird patterned mitts crouches down and opens the oven. A bittersweet aroma that warms his heart._

Branch cleared his throat. “Freshly baked banana bread and...and...”

_November air chills her fingers as she cradles his hand, chirping “Tergeo!” with a wand over his wound. The blood vanishes but the girl is not done. With a teasing smirk, she brings his skin to her lips and presses a chaste kiss over the deep gnash. “All better?” She smiles, unaware of how his breath hitches. A simple joke, comparing him to a child who needed his injuries pecked. He understands that it couldn’t mean much. A light breeze captures the wave of her ponytail and he catches it again. Strawberries._

“Oh no.” Branch whispered.

“Branch?” Bibbly questioned. “Anything else?”

His posture snapped upwards and he bucked back, as far away from that damn potion as he could get. “Hot cocoa and banana bread. I-I smell hot cocoa and ba-banana bread.” He breathed out frantically.

From the corner of his eye he could see a spot of pink peer out to get a good look at him. Branch didn’t dare glance her way.

Bibbly raised a skeptical eyebrow and skimmed his student’s expression. 

Branch was doubly aware of how fast his face was heating up but he was unable to break eye-contact from his concerned professor.

Finally, Bibbly’s expression softened and he gave Branch a light clap on the back. “Alright, excellent work, Branch. Let’s move on, shall we?”

The lesson continued but throughout the hour, Branch did not take in a goddamn thing. His brain seemed to be trying to drown itself with thoughts, each new wave just as overwhelming as the last.

He had been blaming her colours all this time. Too much, too bright, too visually distracting. He had been thinking scientifically about her constant presence in every crevice of his mind. And now, Branch had come to a reluctant conclusion that he had never wanted to believe possible. 

Class ended and he wandered out into the hallway, head blurry with bewilderment. Something butted against his shoulder with a _snorf_ sound.

Branch let out an undignified scream at the long snout that he came face-to-face with. At this moment, the niffler nose vanished as Poppy dissolved into giggles. “Watch out for any more nifflers, Branch!” She teased, patting his forearm as she slipped into the hoard of trooping students, shoulder bag crooked and haphazardly attempting to confine her long pink mane back into a manageable ponytail. 

Poppy was an absolute hot mess who managed to entertain herself with transfiguring her nose, playing with her hair and making the silliest of animal noises. A complete dork, really.

And goddammit, Branch was attracted to her, wasn’t he? 

....Man, he was really craving strawberries right now.

**Author's Note:**

> i really like this hogwarts au snippet that i wrote a few years back. originally it was in a drabble collection that i had published here but i took it down cuz the lack of organisation was bothering me. but if im gonna keep any of them up, its this one.


End file.
